New MP3: "Private Hurricane"

This post has been viewed 9524 times.

Printable Version
Email to a Friend
RSS Syndication

New MP3: "Private Hurricane"

Posted on Wed, Dec 31 2008

Here's one that's been gurgling around my head for a couple months now. It took forever to nail down onto tape, and I'm still not quite done, but this is a 2008 song and doesn't want to wait an extra day.

Oh, and this is my 150th song to be released! Granted, one of those songs was "Danger Bus", but I'm still pretty proud. :)

Private Hurricane: (MP3, Lyrics, Share)

Production Notes:

The electric guitar is all Telecaster. The main riff is with the middle pickup position, going into my new toy, a Deluxe Memory Man analog delay/chorus pedal. It went into the Pro Junior amp section with the Blackface speaker cabinet, then into a blend of three mics (Apex, 414, and a little SM-57). It was noisy, so I set up an X-noise for each mic, and enveloped the reduction parameter to take more out in the quiet parts where you hear it more. I might try reamping it again to make it sound smoother later, but for now it'll work.

The vocals (except for the last chorus, where I needed more brightness) were recorded with the Apex 215 ribbon mic. I love the richness and smoothness it gives when you don't need something super-bright. And for an $80 mic, I have no complaints!

I screwed up my left hand while recording the drums. I didn't quite have a good take of the last section of the song when a blister broke, but I had to finish it up, so I did one more take and nailed it. From the solo on, the drums were played in agonizing pain. :D

There are a few random background instruments. The banjo kicks in for the middle of the first verse. The accordion shows up through most of the song. There's a piano part that plays low arpeggiated 1-5-1 chords at the start of each measure of the loud parts.

For mastering, I've been going toward the direction of even quieter and more dynamic than before. It'll be a challenge to make the quiet intro mesh in an album context, but for now I like the way the loud parts punch you.